The Beginning is the End is the Beginning
by Zaion Indulias
Summary: In first year Harry Potter learned the secret of the Philosophers Stone. In seventh the Wizarding World betrayed him, but from his own ashes he will rise anew. Though even he did not realize it, the Stone has made him...Ancient.


Harry Potter: The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

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_The story I am going to tell you starts in the middle of a battle between good and evil. A young boy cursed by Fate to stand against the greatest dark our world has spawned in centuries. Guided by Fate to be the guardian of an artifact sought to return the darkness to Life. But while all legends have their basis in some form of fact...sometimes myths are intentionally misinterpreted by those who know their true meaning..._

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**May, 1992...**

Deep beneath Hogwarts in a room lit only by flickering torches on the walls Harry Potter was in the fight of his life. The eleven year old wizard was running, dodging desperately behind pillars as he attempted to avoid the flurry of curses being flung his way by his possessed Defense Professor. He couldn't fight back. He was only eleven and his wand was currently in some corner of the room after Quirrel's disarming charm had sent it flying. All he had were his dirty torn up robes and the Philosopher's Stone hidden in his pocket, and neither of those were going to do him much good.

KRACK

Suddenly the pillar in front of Harry shattered in two place, the large rounded segment of rock falling across his path. Harry didn't have any time to slow down and tripped over it, tumbling across the floor and slamming into the wall. He rubbed his head as he hurried to catch is bearings and came face to face with Quirrel bearing down on him, his wand out and held steadily pointed at Harry's head.

"Now, Mr. Potter, why don't you just give up and give me that which my Master desires. Do so, and I will let you leave here alive."

Shaking, and seeing absolutely no way out, Harry reached into his pocket and took hold of the stone there. As he was withdrawing it he felt an odd burning sensation from it, as if something were eating into a very small section of the skin of the palm of his hand, but he was too scared to stop withdrawing it. He held it out towards Quirrel, noting that the burning sensation vanished just before Quirrel summoned the stone form his hand, then sunk back against the wall. As Quirrel caressed the stone with a look of ecstasy on his face Harry saw Dumbledore come storming into the room through the only exit and sever Quirrel's head from his body with a single spell, a dark cloud seeming to arise from the decapitated head. But Harry took little notice of this, because the burning sensation had traveled up his arm and was now centered around the back of his neck as darkness claimed him.

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**May, 1998...**

The rain fell heavily upon Hogwarts grounds as the forces of both the Ministry and the Death Eaters stared in shock. Voldemort had fallen. Despite all their plans, all their preparations, all the damage they had caused to Hogwarts defender's and the Ministry forces, all it had taken to defeat them was a single solitary boy standing on a pyramid of stone seemingly produced from the sodden ground, a black pyramid as smooth as glass, to destroy their Lord and Master. Voldemort's charred husk lay upon the ground, surrounded by the burnt and destroyed bodies of his inner circle. Before them stood Harry Potter, surrounded by a glowing nimbus of sparking lightning as the pyramid hummed with power, power which Harry was no using to pick out and destroy those Death Eaters not smart enough to drop their wands and begin to surrender. And all the while Ministry officials, afraid of the power this boy controlled and the danger he could become politically and magically in but a few years, plotted his downfall as they watched the green lightning of Harry Potter's _Avada Kedavra Levitas_ spell consume Death Eater after Death Eater.

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**May, 1999...**

It was raining that day as many in the Wizarding World gathered in Diagon Alley. Fitting, considering it had been raining also the day that Voldemort was defeated and Harry Potter was arrested for creating and using a more potent form of the Unforgivable _Avada Kedavra_ curse. A large platform had been set up at the end of the Alley, and Harry Potter stood defiantly, bound in chains as a Ministry flunky read forth the charges from a scroll of parchment. Nearby Minister of Magic Delores Umbridge stood with a pleased smile on her face, and no fewer than seven Aurors stood with wands drawn, ready to carry out the sentence.

Looking around at the faces of the crowd Harry snorted. These were the people he had bothered to save? His own friends failed to stand up in his defense after the Battle of Hogwarts when Aurors came to arrest him for using the Unforgivables. They had looked at him with fear as he had connected with the great power sleeping beneath Hogwarts, channeling it to destroy the enemies of everything he held dear. Destroying them just as the Wizarding World had begged him to, expected him to, practically ordained him to. And in exchange they turn around and sentence him, claiming he is a dark wizard and must not allowed to become the next Voldemort.

"For these crimes, Harry James Potter, son of James Charles Potter and Lily Elizabeth Evans, is hereby sentenced to death. Sentence to be carried out via public execution using the _Avada_ _Kedavra_ curse."

Harry snorted again as Percy Weasley, Ministry Flunky Extraordinaire, finished reading off the sentence and rolled the parchment back up. These people, these fools, these utter peons. They were so small in the scheme of things, so far behind on the evolutionary ladder despite every advantage their ancestors had left them in their DNA, that they failed to realize what he represented. He was as far from the dark as it was possible to be. As far from the light too if he were to admit it. He was knowledge. He was power. He knew the secrets that their ancestors had long ago forgotten. He was Ancient.

In unison the seven Aurors surrounded the bound and chained Harry Potter and raised their wands. Percy turned to face him, his back to the watching audience, and spoke loudly and clearly.

"Any last words, Potter?"

Harry looked past Percy, looked into the crying and shamed and angry faces of his old friends. The angry face of Ron Weasley, the shamed face of Hermione Granger, and the oddly knowing sad smile on the face of Luna Lovegood. Knowing her Harry mused she probably new exactly what was about to happen. Returning his gaze to Percy's git-face he smirked and said loudly and confidently.

"Bring it."

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**May, 1999...Three Days Later...**

As much as his execution had been a farce and a testament to his supposedly going Dark, so was his funeral a farce and a testament to his victory in the name of the Light. Anyone who was anybody was present, the lawn of Hogwarts covered in shiny white chairs as they gathered to honor Harry's defeat of Voldemort and his 'noble' sacrifice. Everyone was wearing black or red robes to honor him as his corpse, placed in a stasis charm to prevent it rotting until it was preserved in the grave, was floated down a long alley between the gathered mourners by a red and gold robed procession of his former housemates. His corpse was carried to a new tomb that had been created next to the grave of Albus Dumbledore. It was carved of a brilliant red stone, a counterpoint to the white of Dumbledore's tomb, with a gold silk lining within. The procession and those gathered were somber. The speeches as Harry was carried to the tomb and interred long and moving.

And all of it was a lie.

Once the tomb had been sealed and an inscription carved into it the gathered mourners formed a single massive funeral line, to pass by the tomb and pay their respects. It would take six hours for every mourner present to do so, and Harry's tomb would be half buried in flowers, coins, gems, and other objects laid upon it in respect or repentance for their betrayal. The last and final mourner was a young blond woman with oddly prescient pale blue eyes. As she gazed upon the tomb and read the words inscribed there she waved her wand, and with a single spell all the gathered flowers and tokens of respect seemed to flow together, disappearing into the gem of a ring on her hand. Smiling and speaking just one short sentence she knelt and placed the ring on the center of the tomb, over where Harry's heart lay buried, a sad smile on her face. Then she stood and walked away.

Behind her the words on the tomb glowed a faint gold in the fading light, and her words seemed to echo on the wind.

_Here lies Harry James Potter, savior of the Wizarding World._

_**Be safe, Harry, and good luck.**_

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**May, 1999...Three Hours Later...**

Two figures approached the tomb of Harry Potter silently under the bright starlight. Both were dressed in brilliant silver robes and looked to be in their mid to late twenties. Both had brilliant red hair, the man's cut short while the woman's hung to her waist, and eyes as green as polished emerald. They stopped just short of the tomb and just stared, as if waiting for something. Suddenly a segment of the tomb, upon which sat a simple gold ring with an emerald stone set in it, began to turn silver, and slowly a liquid silvery metal rose out of the stone and enveloped the ring. It quickly formed into an orb about three inches across and several long silvery tendrils that began to move and raise the stone into the air. Slowly one side formed a slit and the orb opened, revealing a single emerald green eye staring up at the two silent figures.

"Well it's about time." Harry Potter's voice echoed in the still night. "I thought I was going to be stuck inside that thing forever. Now hurry up and get me to somewhere with more appropriate materials. I need to rebuild my damn body."

Harry James Potter, last heir to the House of Potter, could hardly be killed by something as simple as an Avada Kedavra. Certainly not when he knew the truth behind the Philosopher's Stone and its supposed immortality. Smirking Nicholas Flamel reached out and plucked what remained of Harry Potter out of the air, and taking his wife Perenell's hand disapparated from Hogwarts grounds.

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AN: It's been a while, but I have something new for you. First, no, I haven't canceled any projects, though two are on potential indefinite hiatus (one because my co-author disappeared the other because I decided to abandon it and roll its story elements into I AM when I finally get back to work on it) but my friend and co-author Colius has helped inspire an idea and is riding the whip to help keep me working on it. I present this prologue to you, and intend (but do not guarantee) to finish the first chapter before Christmas Day PST. Also, if you are really good boys and girls and read and review this, I may even dig in and try to complete a new chapter of either DFR, KFK, or BotD. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this.

Jaa ne.

-ZI

Colius comments: Well readers it took awhile to get this done but we hope you like this story.


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